Trove 0.1.1

Trove 0.1.1

This update fixes a privacy problem on the Mac. It also adds an undo history, a smarter search, a terminal that follows your folder, and a lot of Windows work.

Search no longer asks for permission to your personal folders

On a Mac, searching in Trove could make macOS ask if Trove may use your Desktop, Documents, Downloads, Photos or Music, or a network volume. The questions came from Trove opening those folders while it looked for files. This is fixed.

• Cmd K and "Search everywhere" no longer open a personal folder you have not opened yourself. They also stay out of network volumes and automounts.
• A search never asks. macOS only asks when you click "Allow".
• If a search skipped some folders, it shows a quiet "Not searched: ... Allow" line. Click Allow and the search runs again with those folders.
• Settings, General has "Search inside my personal folders" with the same Allow button. It says which folders are still unopened.
• If you click "Don't Allow", Trove respects it and leaves that folder out.
• Windows and Ubuntu are not changed.

Find

• Type *.pdf or .pdf in Cmd K / Ctrl K and the top row says "Search for *.pdf". Press Enter to search for that type under the folder you are in.
• Cmd K / Ctrl K and Spotlight show a preview pane beside the results: text, image, PDF, or a folder's item count and date. It has Open, Reveal, Copy path and Rename. Alt+Right shows it and Alt+Left hides it.
• In the grid and list views, a search hit shows its folder on a second line, so two files with the same name are easy to tell apart.
• Typing "tab set" now finds "Save tabs as…". Palette actions are found by their keywords.
• Escape in the search results list now closes the results on the second press.
• Cmd K / Ctrl K now opens when the window is narrow or the text size is large. Before, nothing showed.
• Every palette action now shows its keyboard shortcut on the right.

Browse

• Undo history: open it from Cmd K / Ctrl K. It lists your recent actions, newest first. You can undo an older one if no later action touches the same files. If one does, the row names the action to undo first.
• Undo now survives a restart. Close Trove, open it again, and Ctrl+Z still works.
• When an undo is no longer possible after a restart, Trove says why. For example: "Can't undo ... - the item is no longer in the Trash". Then it drops that entry.
• On Ubuntu and Mac, undo notices say "Trash". They said "Recycle Bin" before.
• New view switches. In Settings, Appearance, and under "Show" in the right-click menu:
  • File name extensions: turn them off to see base names.
  • Compact view: tighter rows in the Details view.
  • Item check boxes: tick files with the mouse instead of holding Ctrl.
  • Navigation pane: hide the sidebar.
• "Apply view to subfolders" in the empty-space menu. A folder without its own view now follows the nearest parent that has one.
• The breadcrumb arrows between folder names are buttons. Click one to list the subfolders and jump to one.
• The setting "View" is now called "Default view for new folders". It looked like a bug when it did not match the folder you were in.
• Tiles show "HEIC · no preview" for HEIC pictures that cannot be drawn, the same as Icons and Gallery.
• The Cmd K preview card draws a HEIC picture, and a video on Mac, at full size.
• Tab sets: save your open tabs under a name with "Save tabs as…", and open, rename or delete the set later. Use Cmd K / Ctrl K.
• Keyboard section in Settings. Move any action to a key you like. Menus, the toolbar and tabs show your key. Trove warns when two actions clash.
• Settings, Apps: one switch for each app Trove found (Code, terminals and so on) to show it in the right-click menu. Turning one off never removes a command you typed yourself.

Files

• Rename keeps the extension. With extensions hidden, F2 shows only the name, so you cannot type over ".pdf".
• Extract all… in the right-click menu on an archive. You pick the folder (for example a USB stick). It shows progress, asks about name clashes, and Undo works.
• Trove now opens and extracts RAR files. It cannot make them. A password-protected or broken RAR tells you so.
• Open in DevGo: right-click a folder, or empty space in it, to open it in DevGo. Trove finds DevGo on Windows, Mac and Linux.

Terminal

• Type cd in the terminal pane and the file list moves to that folder, when your shell reports its folder (fish does by default; for zsh, bash or PowerShell add the one line shown next to Follow folder). The default zsh on a Mac does not. Before, it only worked the other way round.
• "Paste paths into terminal" in the right-click menu types the selected paths on the command line, quoted for your shell. It opens the terminal if it is closed.

Windows

• The right-click menu now includes Windows' own items: 7-Zip, Send to, Open with, Defender, Share and New. They sit in the one menu. Trove's items show at once and the Windows items fill in a moment later. Hold Shift for the extra items.
• A network share that does not answer never freezes Trove. Listings, folder checks and icons give up after a few seconds and say "Still reaching …" with a Cancel button. Then the share is greyed out.
• A share that wants a password offers "Sign in…". It uses the normal Windows sign-in box. Trove does not save the password.
• Mapped network drives have their own Network group in the sidebar.
• Paths over 260 characters now work: list, rename and make folders.
• Rename, New folder and permanent Delete that fail with "Access is denied" offer "Retry as administrator".
• OneDrive files show if they are online-only, kept on this device, or local. The right-click menu has "Keep on this device" and "Free up space". The OneDrive row in the sidebar shows its sync state.
• WSL: a folder you go back to shows at once, and a green dot marks the Linux distros that are running. Looking at the dot never starts one.

Mac

• Search no longer asks for permission to your personal folders (see the top of these notes).
• The Settings sidebar shows real icons for Apps and Search index.
• Install note: right-click, Open no longer works on macOS 15. Use "Open Anyway" in Privacy & Security. See Install.

Linux

• Undo notices say "Trash".
• Extract all… and undo of an extract were checked on Ubuntu, including a USB stick.

Good to know

• There are still no automatic updates. Download the new version and install it over the old one.
• The downloads are not signed by a known publisher yet, so your system warns you the first time.
• The Windows right-click items, network sign-in, OneDrive, Retry as administrator and WSL items are Windows only.

Install

• Windows: run Trove_0.1.1_x64-setup.exe.
• Mac: open Trove_0.1.1_universal.dmg (Apple silicon and Intel in one file) and drag Trove to Applications.
• Ubuntu: install Trove_0.1.1_amd64.deb, or make Trove_0.1.1_amd64.AppImage executable and run it.

If your computer warns that the app is from an unknown publisher, here is how to open it anyway:

• Windows: click "More info", then "Run anyway".
• Mac: Trove is not notarized yet. Open it once, and it is blocked. Then open System Settings, Privacy & Security, and click "Open Anyway". (Right-click, Open no longer works on macOS 15.)
• Ubuntu: install the .deb, or make the AppImage executable and run it.

Each release carries a SHA256SUMS.txt. Source code is MIT licensed.

Trove 0.1.0

Trove 0.1.0 (DRAFT)

The first public version of Trove: a fast file explorer with real tabs, one look on Windows, Mac and Ubuntu.

New

• You can open many folders in tabs.
• You can press Ctrl K (⌘K on a Mac) to find anything, and Trove answers from its own list of file names first.
• A search index (on by default, off in Settings) finds files by name at once. On Windows it covers your fixed drives, on a Mac your home folder, on Ubuntu your home folder live and the rest of the disk every 30 minutes. It skips build and cache folders, finds close matches when your spelling is off, and a "Forget" button wipes it.
• You can use Spotlight, a small window opened by a shortcut you choose. It finds files and apps, does sums, and searches the web with the engine you pick.
• You can see each folder's size in the list. It is counted in the background.
• You can view files as cards grouped by date, as a list, or as a details table. A preview pane shows the file and its facts on wide screens.
• You can open a file with another app from the right-click menu ("Open with").
• You can open zip, 7z and tar files like folders, extract them, and make new ones. RAR is not supported yet. A password-protected 7z tells you so.
• You can see your installed apps in an Applications place and uninstall one from there (Mac: moves it to the Trash; Windows: runs its uninstaller; Ubuntu: hands it to apt, Snap or Flatpak).
• You can choose how Trove feels with "I'm coming from" in Settings, so names, keys and bin words match what you are used to.
• You can snap one Trove window to a half, or arrange all windows stacked, side by side or cascaded. Right-click the title bar for the window menu.
• You can drag files in and out of the window, and copy, cut and paste between Trove windows.
• You can see which program has a file open when Delete or Move fails, then Retry or End task.
• You can pin any folder to the sidebar, and unpin it again.
• You can pick System, Light or Dark in Settings, and an accent colour.
• You can use the mouse side buttons for Back and Forward.
• Windows and Ubuntu: Trove can be your default file manager.
• You can have Trove start at login (Settings, Behaviour).
• Mac only: Finder keys work in the list (⌘O, ⌘↓, ⌥⌘⌫), ⌘[ ⌘] ⌘↑ move around, and picture, video and app thumbnails come from QuickLook.
• Mac only: ⌘Z puts back an item Trove sent to the Trash.
• Linux only: the terminal pane starts your own shell, and "Keep running" shows or hides the tray icon.
• On Linux, videos over 512 MB open in your video player.

Better

• Trove looks the same on every system: bundled fonts and one blue accent.
• Copies and moves carry on past a file they cannot read, then list what did not arrive and offer "Retry failed".
• Menus work with the arrow keys, and each Esc closes one layer.
• Trove follows reduced motion and Windows high-contrast themes.
• Local drives show at once, even while a dead network drive is still answering.

Fixed

• Delete no longer says nothing when the file stayed in its folder.
• Right-clicking a file inside a zip no longer crashes Trove on a Mac.
• Zip files with accented or non-English names keep their names.
• Alt+Space no longer hangs the page on Windows, and Alt+F4 on Spotlight no longer stops the shortcut working.
• After renaming or closing a confirm box, the keyboard goes back to the file list.
• Ctrl+Z undoes typing in the rename box and address bar on Linux.
• The release log no longer writes file paths.

Good to know

• No automatic updates yet. To update, download the new version and install it over the old one.
• The downloads are not signed by a known publisher yet, so your system will warn you the first time.
• On Windows the index also reads the drive's change log, so it is current the moment Trove opens. On Mac and Ubuntu it walks the folders again when Trove starts.
• Mac: Trove asks to talk to Finder so the Trash and Put Back work.

Downloads

• Windows: Trove setup .exe
• Mac: Trove .dmg
• Ubuntu: Trove .deb, or the AppImage

If your computer warns that the app is from an unknown publisher, here is how to open it anyway:

• Windows: click "More info", then "Run anyway".
• Mac: open System Settings, then Privacy & Security, then "Open Anyway" once.
• Ubuntu: install the .deb, or make the AppImage executable and run it.

Installers (names as the build produces them): Trove_0.1.0_x64-setup.exe (Windows), Trove_0.1.0_universal.dmg (Mac, Apple silicon and Intel in one file; exact name set by the build), Trove_0.1.0_amd64.deb and Trove_0.1.0_amd64.AppImage (Linux). Each release carries a SHA256SUMS.txt.

Source code is MIT licensed.